Took phased approach before restarting platform: WazirX CEO

Indian crypto exchange WazirX is picking up from where it left 15 months ago, when a breach wiped out over $230 million. The platform resumed operations last month after completing its restructuring in Singapore. Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Nischal Shetty outlines a road map for the restart, among other issues, in a video interaction with Ajinkya Kawale and Shivani Shinde. Edited excerpts:

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What is the update following the relaunch of the WazirX platform in India after you got a nod from the Singapore court?

■ There was no playbook for something like this. We've not seen a crypto exchange come back after about 45 per cent of the value on the platform was impacted. We took a phased approach before restarting, launching in four phases. We saw new buyers coming in, and less people left the platform compared to what we thought.

The platform categorised users in three buckets. One, people who would want to sell because they have not been able to do so in the past 15 months; second, who want to completely exit the platform and third, who would continue to trade. The majority are in the category where they're continuing to use the platform.

What have been the major learnings from the incident?

■ Clear communication helped a lot. We had several town halls, content created within the app, on our blog post through the entire restructuring process. One can’t communicate effectively to the entire four million people who were impacted, but we made sure that the majority were (communicated) while keeping our support channels open all through.

We continue to answer people’s questions. We have put in measures such as partnership with BitGo (infrastructure provider for virtual digital assets).

It is the largest custody provider with over $90 billion worth of assets under its custody. It also offers $250 million in insurance. We're putting in efforts to ensure that our platform still remains secure.